12 year old having diffulty reading despite Orton Gillingham

[BrandieRose]

Hi ladies,

 

My son had been struggling with his literature.  I'd be grateful for any advice.  He's 12 and has always had a difficult time reading out loud.  He can easily and quickly read at around a fifth grade level, retaining the main ideas of what he has read as long as he is reading in his head. He answers comprehension questions accurately.  He's bright and quick to understand.  Once he is asked to read out loud, though, he sounds like a first grader.  He reads slowly, struggling with longer words and constanlty mixing up easy words such as prepositions, suffixes and such. If I make him reread the easy word, he will read correctly after a couple of tries. Vocabulary is part of the problem, but I've done lots of reading out loud and we did Latin for several years.  I don't have much time to add to this.

 

I used Spalding for his Kindergarten and First grade and then another Orton Gillingham curriculum for second and third. He knows his phonograms and phonics rules.  For the last two years he has been using Memoria press and Veritas lit guides.  He has hit a wall with White Fang and is guessing at more than half the words.  I know the obvious answer is that White Fang is too difficult, but he has been stuck at about a fourth/fifth grade reading level for over two years. At what point do I push him forward?  I'm afraid to push him to frustration, on the other hand he is just not moving forward. Has anyone had this issue?

 

His three younger siblings are all passing him up in fluency and it's affecting the way he sees himself.  He's also embarassed to read out loud in Sunday School/ Youth Group, etc...I'd be grateful for any advice!  Thanks! 

 

 

[Ellie]

:grouphug: :grouphug: :grouphug:

 

Maybe it's time to have him tested.

 

You might also consider doing Spalding again, at least while you're looking for some where to have him tested. Knowing the phonograms and the rules (spelling rules are different from phonics rules) is not always enough.

[katilac]

Hi ladies,

 

My son had been struggling with his literature.  I'd be grateful for any advice.  He's 12 and has always had a difficult time reading out loud.  He can easily and quickly read at around a fifth grade level, retaining the main ideas of what he has read as long as he is reading in his head. He answers comprehension questions accurately.  He's bright and quick to understand.  Once he is asked to read out loud, though, he sounds like a first grader.  He reads slowly, struggling with longer words and constanlty mixing up easy words such as prepositions, suffixes and such. If I make him reread the easy word, he will read correctly after a couple of tries. Vocabulary is part of the problem, but I've done lots of reading out loud and we did Latin for several years.  I don't have much time to add to this.

 

I used Spalding for his Kindergarten and First grade and then another Orton Gillingham curriculum for second and third. He knows his phonograms and phonics rules.  For the last two years he has been using Memoria press and Veritas lit guides.  He has hit a wall with White Fang and is guessing at more than half the words.  I know the obvious answer is that White Fang is too difficult, but he has been stuck at about a fourth/fifth grade reading level for over two years. At what point do I push him forward?  I'm afraid to push him to frustration, on the other hand he is just not moving forward. Has anyone had this issue?

 

His three younger siblings are all passing him up in fluency and it's affecting the way he sees himself.  He's also embarassed to read out loud in Sunday School/ Youth Group, etc...I'd be grateful for any advice!  Thanks! 

 

I would get an evaluation done, pronto. Trouble with reading out loud and other issues you mentioned are red flags for a reading disorder (not necessarily dyslexia). And having that much trouble with White Fang makes me think that he is not truly reading quickly and easily at a fifth-grade level (assuming he is reading it silently). A 'middle of the pack' 5th-grader should be able to handle the book. 

 

You can't just push him forward; you need to know why he's having trouble. I don't even know how you could 'push' someone into reading better. If you haven't been consistent with home schooling (taking long breaks, frequently leaving books unfinished), the a commitment to consistency might well help. On the other hand, if you've been steadily working on skills all along, spending a reasonable/standard amount of time per day, I wouldn't have much faith in just working harder and/or longer. I would assume that something needs to change. 

[Farrar]

Seconding to get an evaluation done. And to push for him to read with a bookmark under the page. Or, if you have a Kindle, read in a giant font.

 

Also, I wouldn't push him to read harder books. Let him read something really light and easy and repetitive. For many kids, it's reading all those Magic Treehouse or other chapter series books with their simple words and repetitive plots that really build fluency. There are series that are nearly that easy for slightly older kids as well. For some kids, it would be too easy to be considered "school" reading or "real" reading. But think of that stuff as being just as important for some kids as the phonics work. It's fluency work.

 

If he's reading at a 4th/5th grade level at age 12, he's really not that far behind. Remember too that kids don't learn in one clear, ever progressing arc. Most kids, especially with reading and writing will go in fits and starts, taking forever to advance, then going rapidly ahead, then stopping at a level for awhile again before improving. That's pretty normal.

[RootAnn]

Agreeing with others... and echoing the suggestion that perhaps he could read outloud some easier books to the youngest siblings who can't read. Reading easy words over & over helps build that fluency. But I'd definitely get him evaluated & continue having him read out loud to you. 

 

I would find his comfort level, whatever it is, and have him read stuff just slightly more difficult to you EVERY DAY for fifteen minutes -- with a marker to show where he is.

[rebbyribs]

I haven't BTDT, but my inclination would be to meet him where is for practicing reading aloud.  I like the suggestions of using tracking aids.  I would also try to go ahead with the lit study by using audiobooks, so that he can work with the ideas in more sophisticated books.

[OneStepAtATime]

Very bright children can figure out from limited context what a story is saying.  But that doesn't mean they are actually "reading", at least not fluently.  They may only be able to decode a few words.  They are just really good at understanding and making connections from context.  This is why many dyslexics remain undiscovered and are not given the targeted help that they need.  If he struggles to read out loud then I also agree, seek evaluations.  He is not decoding correctly, even when he reads silently.  In all likelihood he is just skipping the words he cannot easily decode and figuring out the material from context.  That skill only goes so far.  He may very well be a stealth dyslexic.  

 

FWIW, there are systems that are OG based but are not detailed enough or go back far enough into sound associations to really be effective for dyslexic children.  You might want to read Overcoming Dyslexia by Sally Shaywitz. as well as The Mislabeled Child and The Dyslexic Advantage by Brock and Fernette Eide.  Also, Homeschooling Your Struggling Learner by Kathy Kuhl might help.  The Learning Abled Kids website also has some great suggestions and Sandy posts over on the Learning Challenges board fairly often so you could ask her questions directly.

 

You might look here, too:

http://www.bartonreading.com/dys.html

 

When a child is very bright, but has struggles, their gifts frequently mask their weaknesses and their weaknesses mask their strengths.  And sometimes they have tremendous strengths that are really hindered by the weaknesses.  It is hard for a layman to really understand what is happening.

 

While doing some additional research you might also post this on the Learning Challenges board.  Many over there that might be able to help.

 

FWIW, although my kids are very articulate and DS10 especially just seemed to breeze through school in the early years we discovered as material got harder that he was starting to struggle in odd ways.  His teachers had no clue what was wrong.  Turns out he has stealth dyslexia/dysgraphia and an odd auditory processing glitch, along with a developmental vision issue that did not show up in normal eye screenings.  

 

Do these things define who he is? No.  They just give us better answers for why he started to struggle and how to address his problems so his strengths can shine.  Same with DD14.  We started over in reading and writing with a much more detailed system that went further back.  I thought at first we were wasting time and losing ground.  Why go back when we desparately needed to catch up?  Turns out it was the absolute best thing we ever, ever did.

 

Good luck and best wishes.

 

 

 

 

[ElizabethB]

I would try to figure out and solve the underlying problem.

 

Vision? COVD.org.

 

Phonemic awareness? LiPS, speech therapy.

 

Incomplete phonics knowledge or guessing problems from lack of phonics and sight word teaching, nonsense words and multisyllable phonics work with also basic phonics review.

 

http://www.thephonicspage.org/On%20Reading/readinggradeleve.html

 

http://www.thephonicspage.org/On%20Reading/howtotutor.html

[FO4UR]

Do not waste more time on Spalding/O-G if he's had 4 years of it already and he's still not a fluent reader. If it ain't broke, don't fix it...and if it ain't workin', trying a different color of the same thing won't work either.

 

 

Get evaluated. Check the eyes with a COVD doc. 

 

Try Dancing Bears Reading. Start with Fast Track. If he already knows the Spalding phonograms & rules, this will start super duper easy. (Do it anyway.) Read the teacher's instructions well. It's simple, but doing it by the directions is vital.  (ftr - I give a half-check for lines attempted for the purpose of morale, but we still don't check them off completely until they are done ala the directions.)

[LizzyBee]

You said you used Spalding for 2 years and then another OG program for 2 years. Spalding is not a true OG program; it was modified from OG to be used with neurotypical children. So your child has only had 2 years of OG, if the second program you used is an authentic OG program. Most kids who need OG need 3 years of it, some need 5-6 years of it. I'm going to agree with the previous poster's suggestion to look at Barton Reading & Spelling. There is a free screening tool on the Barton website that you can use to assess his phonemic awareness and a couple other foundational skills that may be helpful.